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Space research

Mysterious rock on Mars has scientists saying ‘hmmm’

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoNASAThe Mars rover Opportunity took these photos two weeks apart. It might have kicked up the rock in the photo on the right, or the rock might have come from a meteorite. NASA scientists can only make guesses about its origin at this point.

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By Irene KlotzReuters • Wednesday January 22, 2014 6:34 AM

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., — Scientists are stumped as to how a rock mysteriously appeared in images
taken two weeks apart by NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity.

The rover, which landed in an area known as Meridiani Planum a decade ago, is exploring the rim
of a crater for signs of past water.

Another rover, Curiosity, touched down on the opposite side of the planet in 2012 for a more
ambitious mission to look for past habitable environments.

For the moment, however, scientists are pondering a more immediate question. On Jan. 8, while
preparing to use its robotic arm for science investigation, Opportunity sent back a picture of its
work area.

Oddly, it showed a bright white rock, about the size of a doughnut, where only barren bedrock
had appeared in a picture taken two weeks earlier. Scientists suspect the rock was flipped over by
one of the rover’s wheels.

It also might have been deposited after a meteorite landed nearby.

Either way, the rock, dubbed “Pinnacle Island,” is providing an unexpected science bonus.

“Much of the rock is bright-toned, nearly white,” NASA said in a statement yesterday. “A portion
is deep red in color. Pinnacle Island may have been flipped upside down when a wheel dislodged it,
providing an unusual circumstance for examining the underside of a Martian rock.”